The Importance of the Digital Experience In Beauty & Cosmetics
The beauty and cosmetics industry is visual by nature. It’s no coincidence that the most influential brands often have the greatest use of imagery, as visuals often serve as the essence of the product for beauty and cosmetics brands. This is accentuated in digital mediums, where other senses are limited.
The growing importance of compelling digital experiences has only been accelerated in this industry. Now, brands must deliver a personalized and interactive digital journey to recreate the intimacy and authenticity of the real-world.
Catering to Digital Natives
As Millennials and Gen Zers continue to take over as the driving forces among beauty and cosmetics consumers, brands must adapt to these audiences. The most notable change compared to prior generations is that Millennials and Gen Z are digital natives—those who were raised during the age of digital technology.
For audiences across the board, the digital landscape is increasingly where they interact with beauty and cosmetics brands.
According to a study from PowerReviews, 49% of beauty and cosmetics consumers say they now spend more than $50 online on beauty products (compared to 16% when we asked the same question in 2019). And in 2020, 57% of shoppers said that more than a quarter of their online purchases were products they’d never tried.
These audiences are also driven by social issues. 76% of beauty and cosmetics consumers focus on buying products that are sustainably made. 50% actively seek out products made by Black-owned beauty brands.
Bypassing Traditional Sales Channels
As beauty and cosmetics brands shift toward an online focus, traditional sales channels are being replaced by digital ones. Social media, online shopping, and influencer marketing are the tools of the most successful brands in this space.
Companies like Estée Lauder allow consumers to see how products look on themselves virtually. And while the brick-and mortar experience fades into the background, brands are immersing shoppers in virtual versions of their stores, enabling consumers to browse from the comfort of their homes.
The Brand-Consumer Digital Relationship
Establishing and nurturing healthy, profitable relationships between brands and their consumers requires intimate knowledge of today’s consumer expectations.
Availability of Beauty Tech
Some technologies require decades for true adoption. In the case of technology within beauty and cosmetics, adoption has been instant. Accelerated by the pandemic, consumers now expect the availability of augmented reality, virtual try-on, skin scanning devices, and other beauty tech.
Convenient Buying Experiences
Beauty tech is part of a larger expectation for an easy, convenient buying experience. Consumers want ease of use, such as accessible choices and few required actions to reach their destination. For example, a consumer trying on lipstick may want to see how multiple shades look on themselves. The customer who is able to quickly cycle through shades on an easy-to-use interactive tool directly on a brand’s website is far more likely to purchase.
Personalization
Beauty and cosmetics consumers want to feel shopped for rather than sold to. This means creating a consumer journey that ends with product recommendations best suited for the individual shopper. The next level of this expectation is when brands can anticipate the requirements their consumers have before they begin actively searching for them.
Transparent Social Media
Social media plays a vital role for beauty and cosmetics brands aiming to connect with younger audiences. A survey by GlobalWebIndex showed that 70% of beauty and cosmetics consumers discover brands via ads or recommendations on social media. And these audiences have their own social media expectations, of which inclusivity and social awareness are foundations.
Benefits of Meeting Consumer Expectations
When beauty and cosmetics brands proactively consider consumer expectations when crafting digital content, they’ll inherently curate a customized journey for their ideal audience. In turn, those consumers will be more willing to try that brand’s products, remain loyal, and actively engage with that brand.
Beauty & Cosmetics Brand Pain Points
Recreating the In-Person Shopping Experience
For beauty and cosmetics brands, a gigantic hurdle emerged as consumers shifted from brick-and-mortar stores to online shopping. While the in-person shopping experience was filled with excitement, satisfaction, and other emotions, the generic online shopping model is far less immersive. Now, these brands must leverage beauty tech and intimate consumer experiences to facilitate positive emotional experiences.
Transparency & Sustainability
Virtually every beauty and cosmetics brand claims to use sustainable practices and products. But how does a brand prove that? How does a beauty and cosmetics brand gain a perception of transparency? These brands leverage video and interactivity to highlight their sustainable practices.
Why Beauty & Cosmetics Leaders are Turning to Fastr Frontend by Zmags
Fastr Frontend is the fastest way to deliver rich, agile, and composable frontend experiences across channels – while leveraging the value of your existing tech stack. Map to your unique business requirements and functionality to highlight the right products, for the right people, at the right time.
Now there’s a more streamlined way to deliver a consistent storefront across channels - desktop and mobile, including multiple international sites. With Fastr Frontend, you are in control.
Why the Benefits of Fastr Frontend Matter to the C Suite & Other Decision Makers
- 200% Increase in ecommerce conversions
- 87% Decrease in bounce rates and abandoned carts
- 30% Savings on third party costs
- 400% Increase in interactive experience output
Now more than ever, beauty and cosmetics brands need a flexible, agile, and lightweight digital experience platform. Why?
- Rapid deployment saves your team time, which can be spent on other marketing initiatives.
- Ease of use and flexibility allow you to meet the changing needs of your target audience.
- Customization (such as custom calls to action) directly increases conversion rates.
- Interactivity, including animations, hotspots, and multi-merchandising shopability, keeps consumers engaged throughout the consumer journey.
- Custom email experiences create stronger relationships with your subscribers.
Shortening the Path to Purchase
Beauty and cosmetics consumers don’t want to participate in a marathon of pages, clicks, and links. They want a direct interactive experience sitting in the palm of their hand. Through a flexible and personalized experience, you can streamline a customized consumer journey for a quicker path to purchase. Quickviews and on-page add-to-cart buttons simplify the buying process.
Adaptability That Moves the Needle
We live in a world of headless ecommerce where your content hub must be able to serve limitless points of engagement between brand and audience. Native apps, social commerce, web apps, voice commerce—these all represent interfaces used by visitors to interact with your business.
In this world, your digital presence can’t afford to be restricted by technology. Your digital processes must cater to both technical and non-technical teams. The only path to measurable success (conversions, sales, retention, etc.) is through a suite of digital solutions that are open, agile, and easily connected to the rest of the tech stack.
Case Study: Transformed a Static Website Into a Conversion Machine
The Deborah Lippmann ecommerce team was aiming for an agile, creative website powered by digital content. However, their rigid homepage template only allowed for a static customer experience. Within minutes of onboarding Creator, part of the Fastr Frontend platform, this team was experimenting with video, animation, quick view shopping, and other creative elements that weren’t originally possible.
As a result of creatively mixing digital content without limitation, the Deborah Lippmann ecommerce team is experiencing a 106% increase in mobile conversions, a 244% increase in desktop conversions, and 4x higher conversions on their Cuticle Care experience.
How to Get Started
Fastr Frontend is helping beauty and cosmetics marketers create immersive digital experiences without the need for any IT involvement. We deliver the sort of flexibility and capability that keeps you in control of the creative process while keeping shoppability at the core of every experience. With Fastr Frontend, what used to take four hours now takes just 15 minutes, all while optimizing ROI.
Ready to optimize every consumer engagement with Fastr Frontend? Learn more and schedule a demo.